The Brain and ENP

In reality, customer decisions are strongly influenced by context, their purchasing behaviour varying over time and subject to social influences and emotions. If we all bought cars on the basis of traditional economic theory, we would all be driving a Toyota Prius. But we don’t. We buy cars on the basis of “I want one”.

You are lost while driving and need to make a couple of quick-thinking decisions. Should you continue straight or pull over? Ask for directions or figure it out on your own? Your brain is running through all these options trying to determine what the best solution is. So, what part of the brain is in charge of that final decision?

The brain is split into two hemispheres – the right and the left, both having specific functions. The left-brain is responsible for rational thought processing, logical sequencing, and analytical considerations. The right brain helps out with creative thought, intuition, and looking at the big picture. Right brain left-brain functions work together to create a complete human brain, which plays a large role in the decision making process.

Psychologists have long known that emotional associations and evaluations guide our decisions. Emotions consciously and unconsciously reduce the complexity of decision making, creating automatic evaluations that help us towards a decision.

And if we feel positive about a brand, it is likely that we will be prepared to pay more for it than for a brand that we feel less well disposed towards.

All of us are aware from our personal experience that the way that we feel at any at any particular moment can cloud our judgment. Psychologists refer to these as ‘hot states’ – emotional states that increase our desire for instant gratification by making those thoughts that are associated with current needs over-ride all other thoughts that might restrain our behaviour. It is the reason why whenever we go into a supermarket feeling hungry, we end up buying food that wasn’t on our shopping list.

We tend to underestimate the effect that hot states have on our behaviour. Most people would predict that they will practice safe sex but this often doesn’t happen when we find ourselves in a hot state.

We are creatures that live very much for the present and often we lack self-control. Given a choice between instant and delayed reward, we are biased towards a decision that will benefit us now. We are hopeless at deciding on a course of action that will benefit us in the future if an alternative choice will benefit us immediately – even if this benefits us less.